The Citizen Lab is thrilled to welcome Mohamed Ahmed, the recipient of the 2023 Reset Scholarship in Social Media and Democracy.
Mohamed is a second year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto (U of T) majoring in Cognitive Science. Originally from Egypt, in 2021 he moved from Calgary, which is where his family lives, to Toronto for university. While researching various courses at U of T, he found himself drawn to the field of cognitive sciences, with a particular interest in the insights that computational approaches could yield on our understanding of human cognition, thought, perception, language, and emotion.
As a politically informed youth, he was intrigued by Professor Ronald Deibert’s POL106 course, Contemporary Challenges to Democracy: Democracy in the Social Media Age. “I had read Ron’s book – Reset in my first year and was fascinated by immersive discussions on digital technology and its implications during his class and tutorial sessions. This scholarship was an opportunity to learn from people who work on these topics and I would have kicked myself for not trying”, says Mohamed.
A competitive swimmer until Grade 12, Mohamed is an aquatic instructor at U of T and also a soccer enthusiast. In honor of Steven Gerrard, Mohamed is an ardent Liverpool supporter. He is currently watching Everything Everywhere All at Once and his all time favorite movie is Nacho Libre. When asked which app he typically uses before going to bed, he said Twitter. “It is informative and contains some funny content,” he claims.
